Party EXPLOSION!!!

No, really I am dead serious! We threw a full on western party last Saturday complete with saloon swinging doors, toy guns, and lots and LOTS of beer…eh er root beer that is. Ever since our 1920’s party, my husband has had a fetish for concocting homemade root beer. We are not talking the dry ice kind but rather the recipes that call for a few days of storing to allow the yeast to activate which gives the root beer carbonation.

He tried one recipe a week before the party but it definitely tasted too yeasty. The second batch he made, that was enjoyed at the party, fizzed like A&W and was void of any overpowering taste of yeast. On the directions for this recipe, it said to place the bottled root beer in a warm environment for three to four days and after that to store it in a cool dark place. We had two smaller bottles whose corks had popped off earlier than expected. My husband was just happy that neither one of the glass bottles had burst.

Weeeeeeell…

Sunday evening while we were enjoying dinner after church and talking of how we were going to go to bed early to recover from our late night preparations and party the day before, we heard …. wait let me back up. For our western party, we created a fake wall to close off the kitchen from the dining area. Okay back to the story… we were sitting there and then heard a

BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!

(Or however you would write an exploding sound)

Our biggest bottle-a 2 gallon glass jug that was sealed tightly-had exploded EVERYWHERE! We are talking about glass the size of half dollars to tiny specks on the walls, top of the fridge, in the sink, on the floor…

EVERYWHERE!!!

not to mention the mess the actual liquid made. We were lucky though because 1st none of us where in the kitchen and 2nd we had not yet taken down our fake wall. The wall had contained the explosion to a smaller area. Needless to say we didn’t go to bed early and have spent the last few days wiping and re-wiping everything and wearing shoes. To keep my toddler out of the kitchen, I tried explaining to him what had happened and to help him understand how dangerous the glass was, I compared it to small spiders. Well it worked, he stayed out of the kitchen. It wasn’t until my husband returned home and Boston began crying, telling him about spiders coming to get him, that I realized perhaps that wasn’t the best parenting tactic. Well maybe I could get a few brownie points for keeping him out of the kitchen?!?! (o:

Party Update

We are half way through our 9 parties in 9 weeks quest.  5 parties and 1 month down, 4 parties and 1 more crazy full month to go! The parties have been a lot of fun preparing the ambiance and sharing it with friends but the lack of any down time has taken a bit of a toll on us. Most of our spare time has been used preparing for the parties so a lot of other tasks we need to finish have taken a back seat. Let’s just say my husband says we have thrown all of our parties for the year of 2015. If we are not hosting a party or preparing for one then I am going through photos and blogging about our party experiences. I am in awe of people that can post on their blog daily and are clueless how they are able to keep that up especially when they have children. 

Party Lessons Learned

I have decided that I am not a fan of throwing parties Saturday evening and won’t again unless I can help it. The reason being is we end up going to bed later than usual because my husband and I like to sit and enjoy the atmosphere we created with our bigger parties and talk about what we liked and what we would have changed. Which means we wake up to a mess the next morning because not a whole lot was cleaned up the night before. This would be fine on a Saturday morning or any other morning but not on Sunday. I like to keep my Sundays simple and clean so I can fully enjoy a day of rest during the week. When the house is in disarray it puts me on edge which ruins my Sunday and often has a ripple effect into my week. Having it on Saturday does have its pros for it gives you a full day to prepare which is great but… I would rather plan not having an extra day of prep to be able to keep my Sunday.

One frustrating thing… okay I am going to be brutally honest here… is the people.

Don’t get me wrong I like ALL the guests we have had, but sometimes even people you really enjoy will throw you for a loop. And that is something you do not always foresee or plan for. But again that is life. Nothing ever goes as planned, so you just go with it.

I will say however how appreciative I am to those who are respectful to our party requests. I know sometimes with friends we get lax and think it doesn’t matter (like wearing a hat the entire time at the hat party- yes I know I am a bit picky but it is a HAT party!), but hosts work hard to try and create a certain ambiance for their parties and when the guests come prepared it helps magnify that ambiance. If you cannot honor the request, let them know before the party so something can be figured out.

For example, we wanted to invite one of my husband’s coworkers and his wife to our western party. My husband told him that we would all be dressing up in costume as people from the wild west. The coworker said he doesn’t like dressing up. And that was that. We invited him to our Dance Club Party instead which he is very excited about and we found a different couple who enjoys getting into character for our western party. A win win for everyone!

Pheww! Well, although I get disgruntled with people sometimes, they really are the party.

That being said, I better stop venting and get back to planning our next party. How about you? Have you scheduled a party yet? (o: